Hi yall,

I picked up a toaster the other day that I thought was a little odd. It was made in the '20's and is a 32 volt toaster. Now most household appliances I have ever seen from that period are 110 volt AC. The only group that I knew of that had a 32 volt system was the railroad. It's a DC toaster and appears to be stainless and has a fairly hefty weight to it. So, I was wondering if any of you more knowledgeable folks knew what type of toasters, dining cars used in the 20's and 30's, before 64 volt sytems and HEP came out.

Has anyone ever done any research on a subject like this?

Just curious,

Stuart

Help save the 87
gnufe@apex.net

> The toaster could possibly have come from a railroad, but more likely it came from a home with a Windcharger generator and batteries for power.

In the days before REA, power companies did not like to run wires out to rural customers.They didn't sell enough electricity to pay for the wires. Farmers used wind powered generator systems. These were usually 32 volt systems.

You also can find some 32 volt radios from the same source.

I suspect a dining car chef would have used his regular range to make toast rather than use an electric toaster.

fkrock@pavbell.net

Probably Pullman Company, these were common in the small buffet section kitchens. There is one in "Lotos Club"'s kitchen at Pa. State Ry. Museum. RMNE's "Stag Hound" has the shelf and adjacent power outlet for one, but no toster.

hpincus@mindspring.com

Couldn't such an item as this have been used in private railroad cars? And if this is the case, imagine whose toaster this might have been.

Just Train Crazy,

-Angie

Ladypardus@cs.com

A 1910-vintage Union Pacific heavyweight diner, rebuilt @1936, sports a huge, mechanical (runs the slices thru it on a mechanical track) toaster in its kitchen. Of late, this diner/toaster combo lived in a state of dormancy in Colorado.

hi_plain@yahoo.com

Guess this shows where my head is - when I saw the topic of "toasters" I thought it was about Amtrak AEM-7's, sometimes called "toasters" by T&E employees, as well as "meatballs" (for being from Sweden).

pww57@hotmail.com